Pectin is a group of complex heteropolymers, present in the middle lamella of the primary plant-cell wall and act as intercellular cement. They also have an important function in the water-regulation of plants due to their colloidal nature. The middle lamellas which are situated between the cell walls are mainly built up from protopectin (an insoluble form of pectin).
Pectin is composed of two different definite regions: “smooth” and “hairy” regions. The “smooth” region consists of a backbone of α-1, 4-linked D-galacturonic acid, forming a polygalactouronic acid with some of the carboxyl groups esterified with methanol (Rouse A. Pectin: distribution, significance. In: Nagy S, Shaw P, Veldhuis Meds. Citrus Science and Technology, Vol I. Westport Conn.: AVI publishing Inc. 1977). In the “hairy” region, the galacturonic acid backbone is broken down by α-1, 2-linked L-rhamnose unit.
Pectin/pectate lyases depolymerize pectin in smooth region, which cleaves glycosidic bonds via β-elimination to yield oligomers that are 4, 5-unsaturated non-reducing end (Lombard V, Bernard T, Rancurel C, Brumer H, Coutinho P M, Henrissat B. A hierarchical classification of polysaccharide lyases for glycogenomics. Biochem J. 2010; 432(3):437-444). Whereas rhamnogalacturonase cleave within the hairy regions of pectin (Jensen M H, Otten H, Christensen U, Borchert T V, Christensen L L, Larsen S, Leggio L L. Structural and biochemical studies elucidate the mechanism of rhamnogalacturonan lyase from Aspergillus aculeatus. J Mol Biol. 2010; 404(1):100-111).
Pectin esterase hydrolyses the pectin to methanol and polygalacturonic acid. This enzyme can be produced by several fungi including Aspergillus sp, Botrytis cinerea, Fusarium monilforme, Rhizopus stolonifer, Trichoderma sp. etc (Polizeli M L, Jorge J A, Terenzi H F. Pectinase production by Neurospora crassa: purification and biochemical characterization of extracellular polygalacturonase activity, J. Gen. Microbiol. 1991; 137: 1815-1823). But Aspergillus is the major source for the commercial production of pectin esterase (Torres E F, Aguilar C, Esquivel J C C, Gonzales G V. Pectinase. In: Enzyme Technology, Pandey, A., Webb, C., Soccol, C. R., Larroche, C (Eds), Asiatech Publishiers Inc., New Delhi, India, 2005. pp. 273-296).
Pectin-degrading enzymes are important tools in the food industry, primarily for fruit and vegetable processing such as fruit juice production or wine making. Other areas of applications include the pulp and paper industry (Reid I, Ricard M. Pectinase in papermaking: solving retention problems in mechanical pulps bleached with hydrogen peroxide. Enz. Microbiol. Technol. 2000; 26:115-123), animal feed (Barreto de Menezes T J, Salva J G, Baldini V L, Papini R S, Sales A M. Protein enrichment of citrus wastes by solid substrate fermentation. Proc. Biochem. 1989; 23:167-171), retting of flax and other vegetable fibers (Hoondal G S, Tiwari R P, Tiwari R, Dahiya N, Beg Q K. Microbial alkaline pectinases and their applications: a review. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 2000; 9:409-418), coffee and tea fermentation (Gar J G. Tea, coffee and cocoa. In: wood BJB, editor. Microbiology of fermented foods. 1985; vol 2. London: Elsevier Sci. Ltd. pp: 133-154), oil extraction (Scott D. Enzymes, industrial. In: Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. Grayson M, Ekarth D and Othmer K (eds), 1978; Wiley, N.Y. pp: 173-224), bio-scouring of cotton fibers (Singh R, Saxena S, Gupta R. Microbial pectinolytic enzymes: A review. Proc. Biochem. 2005; 40:2931-2944), degumming of plant bast fibers (Kapoor M, Beg Q K, Bhushan B, Singh K, Dadich K S, Hoondal G S. Application of alkaline and thermostable polygalacturonase from Bacillus sp. MGcp-2 in degumming of ramie (Boehmeria nivea) and sunn hemp (Crotolaria juncia) bast fibers. Proc. Biochem. 2001; 36:803-817), textile industry (Karmakar S R. Chemical technology in the pretreatment processes of textiles. In: Textile science and technology series 1st ed., Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B. V. 1999; p. 12) and waste management (Kashyap D R, Vohra P K, Chopra S, Tewari R. Applications of pectinases in the commercial sector: a review. Biores. Technol. 2001; 77:215-227). WO 98/45393 discloses detergent compositions containing protopectinase with remarkable detergency against muddy soiling.
These enzymes are used either individually or in a cocktail (mixed) form in the industry. For example, in the food industry it is used as individual enzyme such as pectin esterase required for gellification as well as combination of different enzymes such as pectin esterase with polygalacturonase required for liquefaction of plant material (Heldt-Hansen H P, Kofod L V, Budolfsen G, Nielsen P M, Hüttel S, Bladt T. Application of tailor made pectinases. In: Visser I and Voragen A J G (eds), Pectin and Peactnases. Progress in Biotechnology. 1996; 14:463-474).
The cloning and expression of several of these enzymes obtained from Aspergillus niger has been reported. EP 0 278 355 describes the cloning of the pectin lyase gene, the sequence thereof and the expression. EP 0 353 188 adds some other pectin lyases. EO 0 421 919 discloses two polygalacturonases and another endo-polygalacturonase has been disclosed in EP 0 388 593. Both of these patent applications used Aspergillus niger as the source of the gene. WO 94/14952 describes three enzymes with endo-polygalacturonase activity which is obtainable from Aspergillus aculeatus. However, no publication was reported on cloning of genes encoding pectin degrading enzymes from M. phaseolina. 
The present invention takes a genomics approach to disclose the genes and their encoded proteins of the pectin degrading enzymes derived from M. phaseolina that can be used in, among other things, industrial processes or purposes.